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- Nov 5, 2014
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Looking for advice regarding documentation and recommendation letters for my volunteer and shadowing experiences.
I've completed the following volunteering and shadowing to date:
- About 150 hours accumulated volunteering weekly at a local ER. I am continuing for at least several more months, so will probably accrue around 200 hours. This is a pretty large and somewhat structured program, and includes a number of pre-med volunteers, so I assume the program will provide documentation of my hours as a matter of course when I leave the program.
- Approximately 2 weeks or so shadowing a primary care physician, who indicated that he is willing to write a positive recommendation for me, but I need to provide a suggestion as to format (i.e., if I am going to use the recommendation in several years from now and I’m not sure in what context, how should it be written). This particular doctor often has pre-med and PA student shadows, but they are part of a program he is involved in with their schools so this question doesn’t come up in those cases.
- Assisting with a hospital/EMT CME program.
- Shadowing a neuro doctor and a cardio doctor in their hospital departments. (Awesome experiences by the way - I got to suit up and literally watch cardio cath lab and neuro cath lab procedures - in one case on a patient that I helped bring in on an EMT shift I was able to join for a day - and I got to do rounds with the docs on the hospital floor). I spent several hours/around a half day with each of these two doctors.
( - I also recently became an EMT and may volunteer as an EMT next year.)
I’m applying to a post-bacc program very soon, which will take several years to complete, following which I plan to apply to medical school. The issue is that the volunteer and shadow experiences occurred over the past year, my post bacc will occur over at least the next several years, and I won’t be applying to medical school until at least several years from now or more. My questions are, (1) In what contexts may I need to provide documentation of the volunteer experiences, and recommendation letters from the persons I worked with, and (2) given that the documentation/recommendation letters will not be needed until several years from now and I don’t know their addressees and the exact context in which they'll be required, how should I have the letter writers address and write the letters so that they make sense in whatever context they will be used down the road.
Thanks!
I've completed the following volunteering and shadowing to date:
- About 150 hours accumulated volunteering weekly at a local ER. I am continuing for at least several more months, so will probably accrue around 200 hours. This is a pretty large and somewhat structured program, and includes a number of pre-med volunteers, so I assume the program will provide documentation of my hours as a matter of course when I leave the program.
- Approximately 2 weeks or so shadowing a primary care physician, who indicated that he is willing to write a positive recommendation for me, but I need to provide a suggestion as to format (i.e., if I am going to use the recommendation in several years from now and I’m not sure in what context, how should it be written). This particular doctor often has pre-med and PA student shadows, but they are part of a program he is involved in with their schools so this question doesn’t come up in those cases.
- Assisting with a hospital/EMT CME program.
- Shadowing a neuro doctor and a cardio doctor in their hospital departments. (Awesome experiences by the way - I got to suit up and literally watch cardio cath lab and neuro cath lab procedures - in one case on a patient that I helped bring in on an EMT shift I was able to join for a day - and I got to do rounds with the docs on the hospital floor). I spent several hours/around a half day with each of these two doctors.
( - I also recently became an EMT and may volunteer as an EMT next year.)
I’m applying to a post-bacc program very soon, which will take several years to complete, following which I plan to apply to medical school. The issue is that the volunteer and shadow experiences occurred over the past year, my post bacc will occur over at least the next several years, and I won’t be applying to medical school until at least several years from now or more. My questions are, (1) In what contexts may I need to provide documentation of the volunteer experiences, and recommendation letters from the persons I worked with, and (2) given that the documentation/recommendation letters will not be needed until several years from now and I don’t know their addressees and the exact context in which they'll be required, how should I have the letter writers address and write the letters so that they make sense in whatever context they will be used down the road.
Thanks!
